The Greenprint. Marco Borges

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СКАЧАТЬ are presented, then reflect on each one. What resonates with you? What inspires you? What moves you to action?

      The laws are also geared towards helping you form better habits. When I was growing up, I was curious about the behaviours that led to success in all realms of life. One question nagged at me: why can some people completely turn their lives around while others struggle with the same problems again and again?

      As I continued to observe people’s behaviours, the answer became obvious: Making positive choices led to positive results. I saw the force of positive habits more and more through my work in the fitness industry. Most high achievers take care of themselves with exercise and good eating habits. Without good health, they can’t achieve.

      When it comes to habits, too often we put on emotional blinders. We refuse to look at ourselves objectively because we might not like what we see. But in order to change what you do, you must observe your habits objectively, without emotion. Why do you do the things you do? Why do you feel the way you feel? Why do you think what you think? The laws will help you become more self-aware so that you can figure out who you want to be, how you want to feel and where you want to go with your health.

      If you spend your energy worrying that shifting to a plant-based lifestyle will be hard, you’ll stay stuck in your old ways. Our food is changing, and not for the better, and your health depends on your ability to adapt. The more you take this new lifestyle one step at a time, the more confident you’ll become in your ability to adapt and create positive habits in your life.

      The truth is that no matter who you are, how much money you have, whether you have five children or none, whether you are a man or a woman, whether you are young or old, you have habits – those little things you do every day, all the time, whether you are thinking about doing them or not. They are the actions that got you where you are and will keep you there in the future.

      The laws are meant to help you forge positive habits – and make daily positive choices that will really affect you in the long run. So please, take the laws to heart. Follow the guidelines they propose to create the health you want. They can really make a difference if you follow them consistently.

      In the end, following the laws will ensure that your future is better than your past.

LAW 1

       EAT MORE PLANTS

       AND LESS OF EVERYTHING ELSE

      People need to eat whole-food plant foods, primarily . . . whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. That diet supports our lives. We ought to live to be ninety or one hundred without getting any diseases.

      —JOHN MACKEY, cofounder of Whole Foods Market and American business leader

      YOU’VE HEARD IT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE: ‘Eat your vegetables’. Whoever said it may not have known exactly why, but that didn’t make them wrong. You know why? Plants are life! That’s why this is Law #1. Allow me to remind you: eat more vegetables, and eat more vegetables while you’re at it.

      Add fruits, beans, legumes, seeds, nuts and whole grains, and the wide-ranging plant world, can easily make up your entire diet. Plants offer us such an amazing array of foods that there’s bound to be something even the biggest vegetable sceptic can love.

      A plant-based diet can revitalise your body and your health in ways you may not think are possible. The results of the Holy Name study prove this: your LDL cholesterol can drop, perhaps by as much as 19 per cent, as it did in the study. You’ll lose inches from all over your body. Remember, the plant-based eaters in the study lost on average 3.5 kilos in just twenty-two days. They also reduced their blood pressure and improved their digestion, among other amazing improvements.

      One of those plant-based eaters was Bridget, director of medical records at Holy Name Medical Center. She was happy that she had been randomly selected to be in the plant-based group of our study. She was not a vegan, though she’s an avowed animal lover and concerned about the ethics of animal agriculture – so much so that she and her husband take in all sorts of animals, from rabbits to goats to sheep and any animal that has been abandoned. ‘Our goal is to give animals a good life,’ she explained, and Bridget and her husband accomplish this mission on their farm.

      Bridget’s results from participating in the twenty-two-day study were surprising. Patchy skin problems cleared up. Her hair began to shine. She dropped 3 kilos. She felt better and had more zip. ‘I never, ever felt hungry. I was always satisfied,’ she said. ‘Anything that pushes that shift to eat less animal products rather than more is good.’

      The proof is in the change in her vital measurements, which astonished Bridget. Prior to the study, her vitals were:

      Triglycerides: 125

      Cholesterol: 230

      LDL: 136

      Weight: 156

      Body Mass Index (BMI): 30.4

      After twenty-two days, take a look at what happened to Bridget:

      Triglycerides: 104

      Cholesterol: 219

      LDL: 122

      Weight: 149

      BMI: 29.1

      ‘I’ve thought more about the food I eat than I ever have before, and I care about what I’m putting in my body,’ Bridget concluded.

      To me, ‘Eat more plants’ is a pretty simple law to follow. My family and I enjoy a 100 per cent plant-based diet, which studies have found to be the only diet in the world that can prevent, arrest and, in many cases, reverse heart disease. We also know that it’s a cruelty-free way to live that is as good for the planet as it is for us. I have one simple guideline: I don’t eat anything produced from or by something that has a face. This means no chicken, turkey, cows, pigs, sheep or fish of any kind. This also means I don’t eat dairy foods, including milk, cheese or butter, and I don’t eat eggs. I don’t use mayonnaise or honey, either.

      One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is, ‘What do you eat?’ The answer is that I eat anything, as long as it doesn’t originate from an animal. I eat vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, grains, seeds and nuts, and no, I never feel sluggish or weak, and I always get enough protein.

      Of course, that’s the big question you get when you stop eating meat: ‘How do you get enough protein?’ Honestly, we are all eating more protein than we could ever need. We are not protein-deficient, and don’t let anyone or any source tell you otherwise. There are plenty of studies that prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt. In fact, studies have shown that the more animal protein we eat, the sicker we will get.

       I HAVE ONE SIMPLE GUIDELINE:

      “I DON’T EAT ANYTHING PRODUCED FROM OR BY SOMETHING THAT HAS A FACE.

       THIS MEANS NO CHICKEN, СКАЧАТЬ